How to practice???

[Tball88]

We discuss on this site a lot of highly technical swing thoughts and issues, however, I haven't seen a lot about how to actually practice to improve your score.

Anybody here have any insight as to those who are professional or close to that level actually practice?

How many putts or putting drills, chips, pitches, irons, woods, sand word,etc.

If a player has two hours to practice, how do they break it up??

 

[bray]

Tball88,

You bring up a great point......As an instructor myself I have seen the most improvement from my student's when the focus is on the frequency of practice as much if not more so then the time of practice.

A lot of my student do not have time to hit balls every day......However they do have five to ten minutes to swing a golf club, and with the proper swing thought and focus a lot of good can come from swinging the club or doing drills without ever hitting a golf ball or seeing ball flight, if you know what your trying to fix and how.

So for a lot of my student's I give them drills to do during commercial breaks while they watch t.v.

Just my two cents.....I'm sure some of the other pro's on this site can contribute a lot to this thread as well.

Sorting Through the Instructor's Textbook.

B-Ray

 

[puttmad]

Tball,

For your putting practice strategy, there are two places where there are very striking success differences between pros and amateurs on the greens:

1) Lagging putts of 30 ft and over

2) Holing out from 8-10 feet.

Therefore you can make some good gains just by focussing on practicing 30 ft putts and 8-10 ft putts.

If you get better at these, it automatically transfers to a higher hit rate at under 8 ft and a higher hit rate between 10 and 30 ft. And by "knowing" the 30 ft putt will make the even longer ones easier.

 

[Tball88]

good feedback puttmad. i'll definitely work on those 30 and 8-10 footers.

Bray, specfically what kind of practice drills do you recommend?

Lately, when practicing i spend an hour and a half working on short game, for every 30 minutes working on full swing.

 

[patty]

I would also be interested to know any TGM club swinging drills using proper swing thought.

Basically I get 15 Minutes a day in my office where I can swing my club , bit of putting etc. This has definately made a big difference to my game..

My no ball swing thoughts are tempo 1- and 2 - and 3 etc etc and not any particlar focus of wrist, Hinge, path etc...

 

[bray]

Bray, specfically what kind of practice drills do you recommend?

QUOTE]


"The flat left wrist is a golfing imperative. Without it more information means only more confusion." Homer Kelly

For my students I teach them how to do basic and aquired motion swings without a golf ball, checking the position of their flat left wrist at follow through. For every commercial break on t.v. they must do one basic and one acquired motion swing checking their position at follow through and wherever else we may be working. As our instruction continues I start to teach the students Hinge Actions and I have them check the different hinge actions at follow through for both basic and acquired motion. The more the student can learn to montior their flying wedges through impact and into follow through the better!

For students that like a little bit more of a challenge I will have them make these swings with a weighted club, or do a flat left wrist drill I teach using a medicine ball.

As the student continues their knowledge of the alignments increases and they will have more to monitor during commercial breaks at home, however the main goal of this practice is the routine. The more I can get the student to monitor the proper alignments at home the better. Every student starts with basic and acquired motion before they can move on to the full swing at home.

Sorting Through the Duffer's Bible.

B-Ray

 

[solarbear]

No golfpro here... but one thing I find useful is to make one handed 1/4 swings back to parallel, focusing on the hips and the right forearm takeaway, tracing some sort of straight line along the ground for the first foot or so, checking that it is onplane in a mirror or piece of glass... as far as practice without a ball goes, I have found this the most useful drill.